Five Mile graduate beats the struggle to understand

Imagine English isn’t your first language. Words and jokes fly past you in a blur and you’re only able to understand a portion of them. Then imagine you can’t even hear the words being spoken.

That’s what Kristina Laptiv has dealt with for much of her life.

“She was very shy and unsure of herself in seventh grade,” said Five Mile Prairie teacher Linda Warren. “She really struggled.”

Laptiv’s mother was pregnant with her when the family moved to Spokane from Russia. “We came here for religious freedom,” Laptiv said. “My family was persecuted for their faith in Russia.”

As the middle of five children, all with some degree of hearing loss, Laptiv proved to be a fighter from the start. “I’m very active. I like to move.”

But initially school overwhelmed her. “I grew up speaking Russian at home,” she said. “I know a lot of inside jokes in Russian – in English I needed explanation. School was very hard. I didn’t make many friends.”

Hearing aids helped some, but she was behind her peers academically and socially. “Her writing and communications skills were really low,” Warren said. “She struggled to communicate with her peers.”

Then a couple of things happened that made a big difference in Laptiv’s life. “We gathered our relatives every month for one year to fast and pray for our hearing to get better and for the next generation not to have hearing loss,” she said.

She’s noticed an improvement in her hearing. Then in eighth grade she attended Northwood Middle School, a much bigger school and something clicked for her.

“I didn’t really know how to act around people,” she said. But at Northwood she came out of her shell, made friends and played sports. With her social anxiety relieved, her grades improved.

When she returned to Five Mile Prairie School her freshman year, Warren was amazed by the change. “She was like a totally different person,” Warren said. “She was smiling all the time.”

Laptiv said a sign in a classroom impressed her. “It said, ‘Be yourself; everyone else is already taken,’ ” she said. “I really liked that. I decided to be myself.”

Being herself meant encouraging other students, making friends and focusing on schoolwork.

“When I was younger I didn’t want to be in school. I didn’t want to learn,” she said. But she discovered she could learn the things she once balked at, if she worked hard enough.

“Her motivation changed and she just took off,” Warren said.

Indeed, Laptiv fulfilled all her graduation requirements early. She’s currently working at a fast food restaurant while she ponders her future.

While she enjoys math, art also calls to her. “I love putting pieces together,” Laptiv said. “When I finish a picture or whatever I’m making, I can tell what I was feeling inside – it shows my personality.”

She feels her earlier struggles have given her empathy and compassion for all humans.

“I want people to know that just because I’m hard of hearing, don’t treat me different – that’s not all I am.”